AMD’s RDNA 3-Based “Phoenix” iGPU Rumored to Perform Just as Fast as NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 (60 W) Laptop GPU

[Tsing]

AMD recently shared a roadmap teasing three families of Zen 4-based Ryzen 7000 Series products, and among them were Phoenix, a set of lower-powered, next-generation APUs designed for thin and light gaming laptops.

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[Zarathustra]

Does anyone have recent APU experience?

I only tried an APU once, on an HTPC I built in ~2014. it was a Kaveri based A10-7850k.

It wasn't bad, but I found that even with very good cooling, the GPU and CPU would step on eachother.

I can't remember the details now, but it was like if the GPU was in use, the CPU would not be allowed to boost clocks, regardless of temps, or something like that.

I never figured out if it was a power limit thing, or just an unsophisticated limit, I tested with some extreme coolers on full blast which kept temps low, and it still exhibited the same behavior.

I wonder if the new ones behave like this.

Come to think of it, my better half has a Ryzen5 2400G. It is a t least a little newer, I could do some testing with that. But it is built into a Streacom FC5 fanless case. Those are a royal pain in the buttocks to assemble the cooling heatpipes on, so I am probably not going to pick it apart for fun...

 

[LazyGamer]

This - this I'm looking forward to.

 

[Denpepe]

Does anyone have recent APU experience?

Personally I don't, from what I have seen around the internet/youtube, AMD's APU's can play esports games at 1080p at 60+ fps depending on the graphics options you choose.

Not something i would choose to use to game on, but in a world with a GPU shortage it could tide you over till the real stuff gets back in stock.

 

[Endgame]

Does anyone have recent APU experience?

I only tried an APU once, on an HTPC I built in ~2014. it was a Kaveri based A10-7850k.

It wasn't bad, but I found that even with very good cooling, the GPU and CPU would step on eachother.

I can't remember the details now, but it was like if the GPU was in use, the CPU would not be allowed to boost clocks, regardless of temps, or something like that.

I never figured out if it was a power limit thing, or just an unsophisticated limit, I tested with some extreme coolers on full blast which kept temps low, and it still exhibited the same behavior.

I wonder if the new ones behave like this.

Come to think of it, my better half has a Ryzen5 2400G. It is a t least a little newer, I could do some testing with that. But it is built into a Streacom FC5 fanless case. Those are a royal pain in the buttocks to assemble the cooling heatpipes on, so I am probably not going to pick it apart for fun...

I can confirm your experience with Kaveri. When the iGPU is in use, the CPU reverts to base clock speed. If you want it faster, you have to increase FSB / base clock. I believe mine only made it to 104 base clock before it got unstable.

I haven’t built an APU since, but would be very interested in an answer.

 

[serpretetsky]

I can't remember the details now, but it was like if the GPU was in use, the CPU would not be allowed to boost clocks, regardless of temps, or something like that.

I don't have experience, but what you describe sounds reasonable to me. iGPU is a large power increase for the chip, makes sense that the cpu is kept at base clock. Plus for gaming it's not like I would care anyways, since I would probably be severely GPU bottlenecked at that point anyways.

 

[Zarathustra]

I don't have experience, but what you describe sounds reasonable to me. iGPU is a large power increase for the chip, makes sense that the cpu is kept at base clock. Plus for gaming it's not like I would care anyways, since I would probably be severely GPU bottlenecked at that point anyways.

Certainly on the old Kaveri systems you would be GPU limited in almost every scenario, but if we are getting to 3060 levels of performance, that may no longer be the case anymore, especially in the e-sports world where they tend to want to push crazy high frame rates.

 

[serpretetsky]

Certainly on the old Kaveri systems you would be GPU limited in almost every scenario, but if we are getting to 3060 levels of performance, that may no longer be the case anymore, especially in the e-sports world where they tend to want to push crazy high frame rates.

Makes sense. Didn't one of the companies recently talk about their new power balancing algorithms that could boost the GPU/CPU the perfect amount to maximize FPS while still limited to overall power budget for the package? Wasn't that AMD? Am I just dreaming up things?

 

[Zarathustra]

Makes sense. Didn't one of the companies recently talk about their new power balancing algorithms that could boost the GPU/CPU the perfect amount to maximize FPS while still limited to overall power budget for the package? Wasn't that AMD? Am I just dreaming up things?

No idea. I haven't kept up.

All of my experience is on 8 year old Kaveri at this point, which is why I am asking the question.

 

[Grimlakin]

I'd be interested in a laptop with the new APU solution if it is on par.

 

[hubaduba]

Makes sense. Didn't one of the companies recently talk about their new power balancing algorithms that could boost the GPU/CPU the perfect amount to maximize FPS while still limited to overall power budget for the package? Wasn't that AMD? Am I just dreaming up things?

AMD talked about that with their AMD Advantage laptop(s?) last year - balancing power budget between the CPU and discreet GPU to maximize performance for the workload.

Very glad to see AMD finally ditch Vega on APUs, and excited to see what they can do with RDNA3 both discreet and integrated.